Intel unveils next-gen Classmate PC with Cedar Trail chipset

Intel’s Classmate PC platform is a reference design that computer manufacturers around the world have used to create affordable, durable mini-laptops for use in schools. More than 5 million Classmates PC computers have been deployed over the past few years, and now Intel is getting ready to upgrade the platform.

At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the company is showing off a new version of its netbook design for students, sporting a shiny new Intel Atom Cedar Trail processor. Engadget took some time to check out the new design and found that, like some earlier models, the new netbook features a touchscreen display that can be twisted and folded down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode. There’s also a stylus for writing and drawing.

Classmate PC devices can typically be built with or without the tablet components. Most of the Classmates in the wild are actually the cheaper netbook-only style models.

The new reference design should be available to manufacturers in the coming months.

aftermath

Umm… When the screen is folded down flat, it’s the slate mode. The tablet features are available no matter which form factor this device is converted into, mostly because they are the result of the digitizer and operating system and not the form factor.

Anonymous

Pretty much everyone treats “Tablet” as the generic word for Slates, Convertibles, Booklets, and Hybrids.

Besides, Slates by definition have no keyboard attached and this is clearly a convertible! While it’s common for most people to associate tablet mode with using just the touch/pen interface.

Slate mode would mainly apply to Hybrids like the Asus Transformer when you remove it from the keyboard dock and it becomes an actual Slate and not some other type of tablet.